


The Last Minute

by wisepuma23



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, BAMF Merlin, Gen, Magic Revealed, Merlin is Angry, Pre-Slash, Whump, it could be merthur if you want to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 18:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5976844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisepuma23/pseuds/wisepuma23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin doesn’t know why he waits till the last minute. </p><p>Maybe it’s the idea of betraying people who fight for a cause he believes in.  Or maybe it’s because because he doesn’t want to believe that Morgana could lie to him about something so important.<br/>Either way, the look on Val’s face when Merlin finally says no is dangerous, but the look on Arthur’s face had been far worse. Merlin already knows what he has to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Minute

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RedQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedQueen/gifts).



> i _really_ couldn't help myself and write this!!!
> 
> based off of [this amazing thing](http://gj-fangirls.tumblr.com/post/138636352755/merlin-doesnt-know-why-he-waits-till-the-last)
> 
> bamf merlin has also a very special place in my heart, too

Merlin didn't know why he waited until the last minute.

He grew up in the slums of London, both his mum and himself constantly kept themselves hidden from Uther's police, and wept quietly when they heard their magical friends screaming as they were taken away. His mum told him all about Uther's hate for all things magic and what happened if they caught someone painting runes, no matter how benign, on the sides of buildings and homes. He could never hold hate in his young heart, but he made an exception for Uther Pendragon, king of England.

Now at the age of twenty three, he was a double agent working in the royal household as a secretary for Uther's son, Arthur. He was told by the illegal magical ring's mysterious leader, who went by the codename The Great Dragon, to infiltrate Arthur's life and quietly corrupt Uther's son from under his nose. It was a haring game of chess that included betrayal, murder, and at times, it was nigh on suicidal. The Great Dragon told him that no one else in the criminal ring knew of this classified mission, and he was to tell to the rest of the criminal ring that he was a simple anonymous sleeper cell on the fringes of Uther's knowledge. Not spending time with Uther and his son everyday.

It was risky, sure, but far more effective than Morgana's plan of slamming the entire chessboard against the wall.

However, out of blue, Morgana texted him that she had a far better idea that wouldn't include a full frontal war against Uther and the overall loss of the lives would be zero. Merlin of course was skeptical but Morgana reassured that the other higher ups in the criminal ring approved of Morgana's plan and had the screenshots to prove it. Merlin noticed that Morgana never mentioned any approval from The Great Dragon, and pointed it out immediately. Merlin could practically see her smirk from the grey text bubble when she made the simple observation that the mysterious leader would approve of no-mess solutions.

Merlin grudgingly went with it and instead of receiving an explicit plan, she sent him an address to a crossroads in the middle of the country that was far from any structure of civilization.

So he waited in bone chilling rain at 2 in the morning as he leaned against his old clunker of a car. It was well loved and had seen many things that normally would send a man howling to the madhouse, or Uther's infamous dungeons since most of those things were magic. This car had seen its fair share of shady rendezvouses, and Merlin wouldn't give it up no matter how many times Arthur had offered to give him one of his cars from the royal garage.

Merlin dissolved the idle fireball that he fiddling with when Val's mud streaked car driven up on the opposite of the crossroads. Val was a man with a mean streak and he wore a snake bracelet that spoke of the secret steps of order in the criminal ring. The symbols followed a reptile theme, toad was the lowest and the dragon was the highest since it signified the closest one could get to The Great Dragon. Merlin didn't wear any jewelry, but had a tattoo of dragon wings on his shoulder blades to show how truly committed he was to the cause. Merlin had to fight Nimueh to the death for her sole Dragon position when he was mere 19 years old and she was his senior by three decades. He was put into Uther's household only a week later.

Snakes were in the middle of the spectrum, but definitely lower than him both in position and power. Merlin didn't trust nor approve of the older man's tactics and morals, in fact it was surprising that Val even made his way up to a Snake position at all. He didn't know what Morgana saw in him.

Val slammed the door shut as he pushed his brown hoodie back from his head, and both of them walked to the center of the crossroads from their respective cars.

"Emrys." Val greeted gruffly with his codename as they clasped each other's forearms in greeting.

"Val." Merlin said in a clipped tone as they let go, "Morgana wasn't very forthcoming with her plan with me, but I was told it wouldn't be messy as her favorite one."

"No it wouldn't." Val grinned wolfishly, "I have something to show you Emrys, the solution that would very easily achieve everything that we have meticulously worked for over two decades."

Val gestured with a finger as he walked back to his car, and Merlin couldn't help his curiosity so he followed too. Val went around to the trunk of his car and waited until Merlin was next to him to open it. The Snake gave a proud gesture toward the open trunk to reveal Uther's son, Arthur Pendragon.

The man that he had been slowly corrupting for the past five years to become more sympathetic towards magic and somehow became one of Merlin's best friends despite their differences. Merlin blinked owlishly at how vulnerable Arthur looked with his hands and feet tied, and he felt the beginning simmer of anger boil in his gut at how Val must've been rough with him to get him so complicit.

Arthur, the same man who was such a trouble to wake up everyday and never failed to make him smile in the morning even after death-defying missions the night before. The Crown Prince who trained his police in the morning in the gun range and ran them through the grinder. Who admitted to him in the armory that he personally preferred swords since it felt more intimate and would rather fight with them than use guns. Arthur, who ate the freshest fruit in the kingdom alongside a burger that made Merlin just ill thinking about how much fat was still sitting in Arthur's heart right now. He saw Uther's son graceful and brutal in battle, but now here in the stained trunk....

He looked like a small child with how much he was blinking in shock and saddeningly of all, resignation. Merlin felt something break inside at the sheer amount of disappointment radiating from Arthur, but Val's expectant look was far more piercing. Merlin's eyes hardened to flint, devoid of all emotion, and turned to look at Val for an explanation. Perhaps they wouldn't hurt Arthur, just leave him frightened but alive.

"Fine, I'll explain it to you if it wasn't _clear_ enough."

Merlin's lips thinned, not at all impressed by the Snake's lack of respect toward his superiors.

"We'll kill him, send Uther a well deserved message." Val said as he took a long draw from a cigarette, "Out here where no one can hear his screams, well of course, barring us."

Merlin sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, "How did you get past my runes? It took me such a long time to put them up, at least tell me how, so next time I won't make it so easy if even Snakes can get in."

Val snorted, "Nothing like a knife and a magic enhancing spell can't do."

Merlin looked away from Val's face to look at Arthur's again. He shoved all emotion back into the box it was supposed to be in, and let logic set in. Merlin had to admit it did seem like solution with few fuss. However, his eyes narrowed as he thought about how Arthur wanted to marry Gwen, the sweet secretary who always gave Merlin sweets from the kitchen. Arthur was the rare sunshine in a world that was always grey in the cold halls of his home. Merlin had seen that Arthur was a good man and the people loved him far more than they ever did with Uther. If anything, Arthur's death meant the end of his mission, his _destiny_ , and the entire kingdom would go up into arms at the death of such a beloved son of the people.

Merlin leaned in closely, dangerous and cold as he tried his very best to look into Arthur's soul in eyes blue as the sky at noon. Merlin wasn't sure what he was searching for, but he did it anyway. Arthur just stared back, with a simple curiosity in the way he met Merlin's gaze. It was highly likely he would have to murder Arthur, and for brief moment, his heart made room for two to hate.

Merlin leaned back and straightened his back like Arthur's police did before they stormed people's homes and leave a blood streaked trail of destruction behind them.

"Emrys?" Val asked suspiciously, "I asked you a question."

Merlin turned to face him, "Repeat it then."

"How should we kill him? I know that neither of us brought any weapons." Val said with another casual pull of his cigarette, the smoke shinier in the relentless rain.

Merlin shoved his hands into his hoodie's pockets lest they visibly shake, "What if we hang him, like Uther did in the Great Purge?"

Val smoked some more as he considered it, and both them ignored the broken sigh from the man in the trunk. Merlin's box of emotions was flimsy at best, and some of them leaked out. The warrior warlock knew he could just save Arthur and let Val be the one rot in a ditch to be found by the authorities. Merlin shook his head fractionally, he's seen Arthur kill his own kind and even the love of the life. Yes, Freya was a cursed Bastet but it stung all the same. Merlin held the sole Dragon position in the criminal magic ring, so he would get only a mere slap on wrist if he went through with this. If he was punished at all, really.

Val flicked the butt into the mud and grounded it under his boot, "No offense, Emrys, but that's a _shit_ idea. I say we give him a very long and painful death, you can help me gorge out those pretty eyes of his. Torture is only fitting for the son of the man who did the same to thousands, and we can do every single thing Uther did to them. Eye for an eye, and so on. Let's drag him into the field and do it there so no one from the road will see."

Merlin doesn't know why he waits till the last minute.

Maybe it's the idea of betraying people who fight for a cause he believes in. Or maybe it's because he doesn't want to believe that Morgana could lie to him about something so important (zero lives his ass).

Either way, the look on Val's face when Merlin finally says _no_ is dangerous, but the look on Arthur's face had been far worse. Merlin already knows what he has to do.

"What?" Val whispered in shock and anger.

"I said no, Val." Merlin stood in front of the trunk, physically standing in between Val and Arthur, "You're not going to hurt him."

Val's eyes glittered gold, a warning, "So you're calling dibs, is that it?"

Merlin hated this so much, he never wanted to hurt his own kind. Even if he didn't like Val, they were still kin. However, as Morgana said once, you should do what's right and damn the consequences. It was almost ironic, really.

"No, Arthur is going to wake up in his bed tomorrow and he'll complain about the sun and I have to drag his fat ass out of bed." Merlin's voice shook, "He'll marry Gwen and become the greatest King this nation has ever known."

Val snarled, his eyes completely gold now, "How would you know? You're just a barista at Starbucks in the castle."

Merlin stilled, "That was classified information told to the Cobras and higher."

"Morgana and the other Crocodiles disagreed with The Great Dragon about how such humiliating information should be kept secret." Val laughed, "The Great Emrys working at Starbucks!"

Merlin's eyes glittered a faint gold as his magic stirred, "I understand now why The Great Dragon told me not to tell anyone else about my true mission. He doesn't trust them. Might as well tell you, since you're going to be dead before sunrise, but I'm working as Arthur's secretary."

Val roared in fury, "You've been there for five years, you could've easily murdered him in his sleep!"

"No," Merlin's eyes shone bright like gold stars, "Because he's my friend."

"If not Arthur, then at least Uther!" Val yelled in despair as his hands glimmered a faint green, "He's killed hundreds of thousands of us!"

Merlin's hand glittered with faint traces of gold, if Arthur didn't know he was a sorcerer, he would know now. Gods, he had kept his magic a secret for years in Arthur's castle, and he had to keep his mouth shut whenever Arthur said bigoted stuff about magic. Arthur would no longer see his bumbling foolish secretary anymore, but he would see the warrior that everyone feared in the magical community. Even worse of all, Val had pointed out earlier that neither of them had weapons on hand, which meant that fighting Val would be messy and bloody. They would fight with their magic and fists, it was going to be raw and animalistic.

Merlin wished dearly that one of them had a gun, so he could just use it and it would be clean and civilized. However, they didn't, and Arthur would forever remember him as a savage, a monster.

"It wasn't part of my mission, Val." Merlin said quietly, "I wouldn't expect a Snake like you to understand."

Val spat on the mud in between them, "I challenge you, oh great Emrys, for your position and life."

Merlin tensed into a fighting position, it was official then. Val's arrogance would be the end of him. Merlin didn't win a fight with Nimueh just because of beginner's luck.

"Best that you don't look, Sir." Merlin whispered over his shoulder to Arthur. He glanced over at Arthur to see his response, but he really shouldn't be surprised by Arthur's stubborn look in his eyes. Merlin didn't need to take off the rope around his mouth to hear Arthur's ' _just try and stop me, idiot_ '. At least some things didn't change, once a prat always a prat.

Merlin shouted in surprised as something heavy attacked him, and banged loudly against the trunk. Merlin choked with Val's hands around his throat, his hips uncomfortably digging against the bumper. Merlin's eyes shone brighter as he let his own hands around Val's wrist to become hot as an oven. His lips curled in disgust as the flesh sizzled and crackled underneath but Val's grip only tightened.

Damn, he forgot that the criminal ring trained all of their sorcerers to have a high pain tolerance, including himself. Dots danced at the edge of his vision, he had to do something and quick. In between one gasping breath and the next, he let his magic turn him into golden smoke and escaped underneath Val's legs and resolidify behind him. Before Val could even think about laying a hand on Arthur, Merlin threw him onto the wet asphalt in the center of the crossroads.

Val spat out blood, the cough barely audible over the beating down rain. Suddenly as if a rope was tied to his gut, he stumbled to over where Val was on the ground. Merlin's blunt fingernails dug into the rough stubble of Val's face as it hovered over him. Gods, what was Val's obsession with his throat? Merlin would have to get.... _creative_.

Merlin closed his eyes, his eyelashes fluttering delicately against the jut of bone of his socket. He ignored the clawing desperation to take a breath and focused on the warm core within him. It shone as the brightest star in the night sky, and with all of the volatility as a supernova. His muscles in his body went lax and his heartbeat slowed as he felt the warmth spread through his veins like after a good pub crawl with Gwaine. He surrendered himself to the molten core like a sacrifice at the altar. As he burned, something rose from his ashes like a phoenix.

The cement thrummed underneath as it whispered of the ages spent in the Earth before man carved them away from its home. The grass sang songs that had no language but was joyful in the rain, and spoke of the epochs of those that came before them. Merlin was no longer a man, but a creature of the Earth. Everything in him was burned away to the most base parts of him, to the most _primal_. And those instincts would not allow him to die today, not here.

His eyes opened slowly as if waking from a long slumber, and wondered briefly if he heard a dragon's roar in his ears, but his mind quickly was wiped clean of all thought. There was no place for thinking here, just action. A man looked at him in confusion above him, his hair was slicked back and had an old scar across his cheek. The stranger had a name, but it wasn't important. What was important that the man's hands were around his throat, and something flashed red hot within him. An open throat was submission, and a beast like himself would never submit to a creature with such a dim core.

The beast breathed and the rain stopped in time. The man had no idea of the growing globe of water was just hovering over him. By the man realized something was wrong, the water globe swallowed his head. The man's oily hands immediately pulled back and went to his mouth, no doubt trying not to drown in the small lake. He sat up, his spine perpendicular to the ground. The man growled since he had already broken the spell on the rainwater within a few seconds.

Suddenly a name drifted into his head, Snake. The beast frowned, he didn't look like one. No matter his name, Snake snarled and jumped to attack him again, but was frozen in midair as well. The beast flicked a finger and didn't flinch as the car roof caved in underneath Snake's weight.

The beast, what was his own name again? Something burned and crackled like a dying fire from within, as if in answer. He walked toward the crumpled car and didn't glance into the open trunk, it was irrelevant whatever it was. What mattered that this Snake person had to die, but he didn't remember the reason. Everything in mind was a haze like it came from smoke of a burning room, and reaching for anything in the fog was just ill advised.

Snake stumbled off of the roof and struggled to stay on his feet. He smashed the glass of the car door behind him and quickly grabbed one of the biggest shards he could find and held it up threateningly to him, the beast. The blood from the palm holding the crude blade dripped onto the asphalt loudly in the beast's ears. He knew he could beckon the rest of Snake's blood out of him from that single cut with a pulse of his core. _No_ , said a small voice from the burning room.

The beast snarled and no one spoke again.

Suddenly he felt a flower bloom in his gut, and he looked down to see the shard instead. He didn't look up as the Snake screamed as he was thrown yet again onto the asphalt in front of the open trunk. All thoughts of the shard disappeared as he turned around and pulled the man by his throat until he was dangling in the air at a height of a man. Snake threw spells at him sharp and clear in the dark night, a dark green tinge to them. They all disappiated before reaching him, and he watched Snake's face with apt attention as it changed from fear to sheer despair.

Snake screamed as the beast's magic dug his claws into his chest like a lion might do to his prey. His shirt quickly becoming drenched, not with rain, but with stark red blood. The beast dug further in, his magic tearing apart the man's dark green core, dim compared to his own gold one. Snake's screams were more bloodcurdling as he was torn apart both inside and out.

He suddenly quietened as the assault came to a sharp stop.

The beast had walked over to the front of the trunk while Snake was being torn apart, and unknown to the beast, that meant Arthur could see the back of him. Not that he knew who Arthur was at the moment, or Arthur could see his face, but it made a difference all the same.

" _Mae'r gwan yw cig, a'r gref yn bwyta._ " Merlin said in a voice that reminded Arthur of that movie he saw with him once, the Hobbit one with the dragon. Arthur squinted as he raked his brain for the name. S something something, and it was a few seconds before he remembered, Smaug! Merlin was talking like Smaug, like an actual dragon, and it was unnerving. Actually this entire experience was unnerving.

Val laughed bitterly as he translated, "The weak are meat, and the strong do eat."

Arthur watched with wide eyes as Val immediately went tense and locked up in pain. When Val turned his head with effort to look at Merlin, the prince recognized immediately the look on a man's face when he had nothing to lose and would go down with a fight. It was a look he had seen often on sorcerers when they knew they were outnumbered and outgunned. It almost always ended with them cutting down his men like a scythe to corn before they themselves died in a burning inferno. Gaius explained once to him that releasing so much energy was akin to a supernova and that they should be grateful that black holes did not exist in sorcerers.

Merlin grunted as he stumbled back into the bumper, temporarily obscuring Arthur's view of the world for a few moments. Arthur heard a strange gurgling sound and he could see Merlin's hands up this throat. Val laughed, harsh and grating, it made Arthur's hairs stand on end. He had seen men killed in battle in front of him before, why was this different? A small voice piped up helpfully that perhaps it was Merlin doing the killing, and it wasn't a battle, it was more like an execution. And it wasn't any execution he had seen, it involved more magic and with no pyres in sight.

Val's eyes suddenly widened and screamed as a green ball of light brightened into existence from his chest. There were more gurgles from Merlin as Val finally went limp and the green light burst, sending gas and sparks in all directions. Arthur shuddered as he felt slick greed and stubbornness like a mountain pass through him at the same time as strange green gas did. Val's blood soaked body crumpled to the ground with a sick thud onto the cement as some of his bones audibly cracked on impact.

The rain was allowed back into motion and the quiet thrum of raindrops was unsettlingly benign after what he just witnessed.

Merlin finally turned around to face Arthur, movements slightly awkward and clunky. The disturbingly large shard in his gut caught his attention immediately, but when he examined the rest of Merlin, his breath escaped him. Merlin's face was covered in cuts and his clothes was in tatters as a large beast had clawed him everywhere it possibly could. Merlin was practically bleeding everywhere on his front, cuts ranging from a paper cut size to deep ones that definitely needed stitches. However the worst one was a deep cut across Merlin's pale throat.

Merlin's glowed brighter and his cut throat healed immediately and looked like it had been there for years instead of minutes. Some blood dribbled out his mouth and Merlin wiped a torn sleeve across it, which only made it worse because it was smeared across his chin. In this moment, Arthur could believe he looked exactly what a sorcerer would look like in the stories that his father told him, covered in blood as if fresh from doing a dark Satanic ritual.

But it was Merlin, his secretary who added emojis in his speech writing (no, he did not need suggestions on how to adjust his face!) and gossiped like an old maid with Gwen.

Betrayal still simmered low in his gut as he watched Merlin, or was his real name Emrys? Val certainly seemed to think so. Whatever the traitor's name was, his eyes once shone so bright like a child but now was as dark as the night around them. Would he do it now, then?

Kill him?

Arthur watched with wide eyes as Merlin gripped the shard firmly and took it out with a sick squelch. He didn't even flinch, and Arthur supposed it made sense since his father always told him that sorcerers had a high pain tolerance. Which was hard to believe since Merlin complained loudly of his sore bum whenever he sat at his desk too long. High pain tolerance, his ass. All the same, the feeling of nausea deepened at seeing a man pull a giant shard out of his gut. It was just unsanitary and gross.

The blood on the shard was pulled off of the shard and formed into a tiny floating ball of blood, and for some reason, was chucked into the field beside the road with an quiet splash. The now clean shard sparkled in the the rain and it was thrown violently in the other direction, a clear smash heard in the distance.

" _Þurhhæle dolgbenn_." Merlin murmured as he held a hand over the stab wound as he swayed to stay upright. He didn't bother with the rest of the cuts on his body and instead grabbed Arthur roughly by the arm with surprising strength. He gave a muffled yelp through his gag at how cold the rain was as he was dragged out of the trunk and onto the road.

" _Sefyll i fyny._ " Merlin said gruffly and Arthur stood up shakily as if pulled by invisible strings like a puppet.

Both of them shuffled across the road to Merlin's car, somehow he couldn't help but feel irritated at the sight of it. Merlin deserved a better car, it was expected that an employee of the Crown Prince should look the very best. However it was likely now that Merlin wouldn't be his secretary anymore, he snorted, they should forgo the two week's notice.

The passenger door slammed open and Arthur was shoved into his seat and managed to pull his feet inside the carriage seconds before the door slammed shut. Merlin limped to the driver's side and as he sat down in the seat, the car started itself and shifted into Drive. Arthur grunted against the car door as Merlin did a sharp u-turn and drove back the way he came.

There was an unholy sound of metal screaming behind them, and Arthur couldn't help but look into the side mirror.

Val's car was being torn apart and writhing like a baby would do to a unfortunate plush toy. Val's truck finally gave one final screech of metal and it disappeared with a sharp pop. As if it never existed in the first place.

Val himself simply was a hot blaze of red and orange on the pavement.

He closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath, Father was right, magic could do terrible things.

What was the saying?

Ah right, out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Suddenly his gag fell away as if untied with invisible hands, and Arthur couldn't help but move his sore jaw. He looked at Merlin next him, still staring at the road ahead. The sorcerer took a large breath and the bright glow of his skin dimmed but not enough to pass as normal. Merlin huffed irritably as if Arthur said something stupid like he usually did, but his magical glow didn't dim anymore.

" _Chwarae._ " Merlin spoke and something ruffled in the backseat, and Arthur had to hold back a laugh as several objects hovered in the air behind them. It was the common sort of fidget toys that one could find at a gas station. A rubik's cube made loud clacks as it tried to solve itself, an industrial sized roll of bubble wrap became flatter by the second, and several of those metal puzzles that never failed to make Arthur's brain shrink at the very sight of them. Surprising of all were the well worn stuffed animals, a brown owl, a pink bunny, and a gift that Arthur gave him a few years ago as a joke. It was a white dragon that Arthur found in an abandoned little girl's bedroom on one of his raids, and given it to Merlin as a mockery of how girly he was.

Arthur never saw that dragon again and he had assumed Merlin had thrown it away, but apparently not. Invisible hands petted and squeezed the soft plushs lovingly, despite the bunny missing an eye and some of the stuffing falling out of the owl. Even the dragon had its own fair share of injuries, like a large rip right down the spine but it was stitched back together with rainbow colored stitches. It looked like it came from a sword, and Arthur knew whoever injured it no doubt looked far worse off.

Merlin's glow became dimmer and dimmer until it was gone all together and the toys quietened down as they were put back on the floor of the back.

" _Cael fy ffôn ac yn agored i sgwrs Morgana yn._ " Merlin muttered and suddenly the phone in the cupholder brightened and it unlocked its own passcode and opened to Merlin's text messages. 

"Rhoi'r neges ar y ffenestr." Merlin said again and the screen on his phone flickered and turned to black, and only moments later the windshield fogged in the space in between them. Arthur gaped as he saw the text message screen the same as it was on the phone in the middle of the fog, and scowled as he recognized the name at the top of screen,  _Fay._ It was Morgana's codename.

"Bywydau sero, fy casgen." Merlin snarked and the keyboard typed it out and sent it with an audible beep. 

_Zero lives, my ass_

Arthur stared at the blue bubble, somehow Merlin's babble got translated into English and sent itself to Morgana. 

Morgana's grey bubble was full of dots, and it was so  _unreal_ on how that was his sister texting his secretary.

**Compared to the thousands he's killed of us, his life is negligible in the face of that. Arthur is worthless, and only comparable to a cockroach.**

Tears pricked at the edge of his eyes, his own  _sister_ , sent that. Something shattered in him, perhaps it was the secret hope that Morgana hadn't hated him but just their own father. But to know that his sister called for assassination? 

Merlin snarled again in the Old Tongue.

_Did all of the higher ups agree on this plan of yours? Even Gilli?_

**Yes, and did you do it? Did you murder him?**

Merlin snuck a furtive glance toward Arthur and said something quietly in the Old Tongue.

_A body is at the rendezvous, Val told me everything, and I want you to call an emergency meeting for everyone. Everyone._

Morgana's response took a bit more time than the others.

 **Why?** _  
_

_Because I said so, or did you forget that a Crocodile is lower than a Dragon?_

**You're in a good mood considering you just killed one of most hated killers of our kind.**

_If it gets you off my back and do what I ordered, I'll tell you about how I let myself go like I did with Nimueh but worse. Far worse._

**.....Yes sir, everyone will be waiting for your arrival at noon today at The Tavern.**

_Don't be late._

The window cleared of its fog and presumably the text conversation ended.

"Merlin..." Arthur croaked, questions brimming on the tip of his tongue.

"Just.....don't." Merlin whispered as his knuckles whitened on the steering wheel.

Arthur stayed silent and simply stared at him.

Merlin's voice shook slightly, "We're going home, and you're gonna finish up on your beauty sleep."

The air became more strained.

"I know how prattish you can get without your beauty sleep, sir." 

The joke didn't just fell flat, it flung itself off of a tall building wearing nothing but underwear.

Silence reigned supreme the whole way home and Arthur didn't point out how at ease Merlin was at evading the guards the whole way to his bedroom. It was glaringly obvious that Merlin could've truly murdered him in his sleep and escaped before even the alarm sounded, if it was sounded at all. It was only once Arthur tucked beneath the covers was his cuffs spelled off. Merlin tucked the cuffs into his jacket and with a whispered word, his own wounds and bruises disappeared. Merlin was the seemingly weak secretary that never got a papercut in his life. His secretary made to leave but Arthur decided to go ' _fuck it'._

"Merlin?" Arthur whispered, eyes just peeking over his silk duvet.

Merlin turned, "Yes sir?"

"T-th-thank you." Arthur admitted with burn on his cheeks, "We're gonna have a proper _talk_ later, but what are you going to do?"

Merlin's smile was blindingly in the shadows of his bedchambers but turned serious as he considered Arthur's question.

"I'll talk to  _my_ boss, because what Fay and the others did was completely out of line." Merlin said with a contemplating look on his face, "I'll tell them that you are  _protected_ by me."

Merlin smiled softly, so opposite the hardness that he saw earlier that night.

"Because who gets the brunt of it when you lose beauty sleep? Me." Merlin rolled his eyes, "I'm not looking forward to being used as a dummy."

"I don't think you need to worry about that anymore." Arthur admitted honestly.

Merlin's look turned sharp, "Should I hand in my two week's notice?"

Arthur squinted as he remembered the choking shock of betrayal and how brutal Val was torn apart with nothing but a look. However Merlin said that he was protecting  _him,_ a Pendragon being protected by a sorcerer of all people. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he still saw Merlin the bumbling secretary who frequently left coffee stains on his expensive mahogany desk. Perhaps they were one and the same, or it was just all a lie. Arthur's head and heart hurt and it was _far_ too early in the morning to be thinking about this.

"No." Arthur said finally, "Training a secretary all over again is too much work and I already spent the past half decade on training _you_."

Merlin fidgeted, "Can I heal you?"

Arthur blinked, he didn't consider that awkward questions might be asked if his guards or Uther saw the red burns on his wrists or his bruise peppered face and body. A really _really_ poor night's sleep wouldn't be accepted as an excuse.

But it was magic, and he had just seen Merlin kill a man in cold blood.

And what would stop him from putting an enchantment on him?

"Okay." spilled out of Arthur's lips before he could take it back.

Merlin shuffled over to him as Arthur watched him raptly, ready for anything.

Arthur couldn't help but flinch when Merlin's hand hovered him like one did before strike.

He fought closing his eyes in fright, for god's sake he was a prince, fear was for weaklings!

Merlin's pupils glowed a faint yellow instead of the terrifying gold that swallowed his entire eye socket and the pupil red as if painted with blood.

His aches and pains faded and Arthur felt no different.

"Good night, sir." Merlin whispered so quietly that Arthur had to strain to hear, "I'm sorry."

The warlock slipped out before Arthur could muster a response, and the prince was left alone with his thoughts. He didn't sleep at all that night and didn't get out of bed when the sun peeked through his curtains. When Merlin walked in, making a loud racket as he put breakfast on his table, he still didn't get up. Merlin and Arthur went through their morning routine, every quip and banter rehearsed, the same old song. When Merlin insisted that he get up, Arthur simply said today he was going to spend the day in bed, and Merlin made no argument. It was for the best, Merlin had a secret meeting to go to and Arthur rathered he stay in bed lest he was tempted to follow his secretary and kill every sorcerer he saw there.

Unbeknownst to the both of them, magic became legal three years later, the old king died in his sleep and the criminal ring was torn in half in a power struggle between Emrys and Fay.

England prospered for the first time in its turbulent history and the kingdoms were unified in peace and liberty ever since Prince Arthur became King Arthur.

Somewhere, The Great Dragon laughed.

 


End file.
